A New Editorial Team

I was asked to serve as Editor-in-Chief of Human Gene Therapy in 2003. The Editorial Board in place at the time had been serving the Journal for quite a while and was asking for relief. One of my first tasks was to assemble a new editorial team to help move the Journal into the twenty-first century. Colleagues who joined the Journal to serve as Associate Editors were Luigi Naldini, Ken Berns, and Fatima Bosch in addition to Mark Kay and Shuichi Kaneko, who were continuing in their role as Associate Editors; Yu-quan Wei was subsequently added to replace Dr. Kaneko and Bernd Gansbacher was appointed as Deputy Editor in 2008.

The members of this team have been incredible stewards of the Journal, contributing to its evolution and growth. One of our most important accomplishments has been the forging of affiliations with the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy and a number of country-specific European gene therapy societies. After numerous productive years of service to the Journal, Luigi, Ken, Fatima, and Bernd will be stepping down. I personally thank these colleagues for their support of the Journal, especially in the early days when the field was suffering and the Journal was in need of a makeover.

I am delighted to welcome several new scientists to the leadership team of the Journal. Terence R. Flotte, M.D. (Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Department of Microbiology and Physiological Systems and Dean of the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine), Chiara Bonini, M.D. (Project Leader, Experimental Hematology Unit, Division of Regenerative Medicine, Gene Therapy and Stem Cells, San Raffaele Scientific Institute), and Adrian J. Thrasher, M.D., Ph.D. (Professor in Pediatric Immunology, University College London), will serve as Associate Editors and J. George Dickson, Ph.D. (Professor, Molecular Cell Biology, School of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London) will take the position of Deputy Editor. Times are different—some say gene therapy is back! The Journal will do whatever is possible to promote the field and ensure that this wave of support is durable. The Associate Editors and Deputy Editor will play substantial roles in ensuring our success. I recommend you reach out to them directly with any thoughts you have about how the Journal can better support the field.